This invention generally relates to fishing implements and is particularly concerned with the provision of a hook with a connector therefor upon which a spur or barb is formed so as to provide an apparatus which functions in a manner similar to but greatly improved over the well-known Carlisle or Peckway minnow hooks.
Baiting hooks, such as the Carlisle or Peckway minnow hook, have long been utilized by fishermen, these hooks having the characteristic construction of a barb formed at an end of the hook opposite the hook point, which barb is adapted to restrain and hold bait, such as a worm or minnow which is threaded over the hook and penetrated by the barb. In this respect, initial attention is directed to FIG. 1 of the Application drawings in which a typical baiting hook, such as a Carlisle minnow hook is disclosed.
From this Figure, it will be seen that such a typical hook comprises a metal shank 10 having a barbed point 12 at one end thereof and a further metal barb or spur 14 at the other end, instead of being provided with an eye as is conventional with other forms of hooks and to which a line or snell is to be attached. With a Carlisle or baiting hook of the general type described, a snell or line 16 is attached to the shank 10 of the hook by a tedious hand-wrapping process by which multiple windings 18 of thread such as silk or nylon is wrapped to securely hold the snell to the shank.
The user of a baiting hook such as the Carlisle or Peckway hook threads bait such as a minnow or worm over the shank of the hook 10 and up towards the line or snell 16 in a fashion such that the barb or spur 14 penetrates the bait and, hopefully, holds the bait in place. In practice, this desired operation of conventional, available, and existing baiting hooks does not always hold true.
For example, hooks of this general type are utilized in baitcasting, spin, and fly fishing and, during casting of the line, the rigid metal barb 14 often times rips the bait to the point where the bait no longer is securely held and can come off the hook. Furthermore, a fish which attempts to take the bait but which is not securely hooked on the point 12 of the hook often times is hooked instead on the rigid spur 14, which spur, of course, is not designed to securely hold the fish and therefore results in a loss of the fish itself, even though the bait may have been taken.
Of course, and as already is apparent in the industry, the necessity of the tedious hand-wrapping of the snell 16 of the hook 10 itself constitutes a grave disadvantage to the continued utilization and manufacture of such baiting hooks. This basic disadvantage, coupled with the inferior and improper operation of the metal barb 14 constructed as an extension of the hook shank 10 per se as above-discussed provides the background against which the instant invention has been developed.